Leaving well enough alone

As opposed to earlier this week, when Tom Renney might have considered bringing Pierre Larouche out of retirement if only for the sake of change, the coach sees no need to make any tweaks tonight against the Capitals.

Hence, the coach will field the same lineup as he did in last night’s drubbing of the Lightning, and Pascal Dupuis will begin his Rangers career not wearing No. 61 or No. 98, but a size 42 long suit (or something in that neighborhood).

No argument here, especially given the fireworks between these two teams the last go-round on Dec. 30. And here’s the beauty: should Donald Brashear ask Colton Orr for a tango, Orr can simply decline and say his job is to score goals.

And if that fails, he can bring in the now 38-year-old Brendan Shanahan as his protector.

This of course means Henrik Lundqvist gets his 11th consecutive start, and his 19th straight appearance dating back to Dec. 23. If you’re worried about the goaltender keeling over at some point, bear in mind the Rangers don’t play again until Thursday.

very hard for renney to tell dupuis he’s not gonna play tonight HOWEVER it was absolutely the right move and sends the right message to the players. i was worried prucha would be taken out but he didn’t deserve to be and renney was smart enough not to make that mistake. sucks for dupuis who doesn’t deserve to be a healthy scratch but like same said leave well enough alone

Absolutely the right decision to keep the lineup the same, especially with a possible questionable character guy like Dupuis (given his incident in Minnesota).

Looking to see something from Shanahan’s line tonight. He’s got no excuses now. He’s got a center to get him the puck. He’s got his buddy Avery. You can tell he’s forcing play by taking shots on every opportunity.

Lundy can rest next weekend. Chicago or Philly is the perfect game for Weekes. Given last night’s performance and the rest til Thursday, get the Sweede back in nets.

Great decision to keep the same lineup together … Both Holly and Orr EARNED their playing time tonight and nothing against Dupuis, who I have never seen play, after that Dec. 30th game vs the Caps the lineup we had last night is exactly the same lineup we needed tonight …

Henrik is 24 yrs old and we will have 4 days OFF as you said .. look at Brodeur, has he had a day off since November? Isn’t he like 10-11 yrs older than Henrik? Henrik can do it and he’s in a zone …

Henrik’s fine.
What he goes through on off-day practices is MUCH harder on his body than the average 30 shot game. Especially with Benoit as his coach.
If he needs a break, give him a day off practice and go with one goalie.
From here on out, every point counts, and he should be counted on to bring those points home.
Looking ahead on the schedule Weekes could probably start against Chicago, CBJ, or STL, but we MUST have those points. the home and home against hte Devs between CHI and CBJ might be enough reason to give Henrik a short break, but other wise….ride him the distance.

Awesome period! So much fun to watch. However…Orts totally whiffed on that breakaway shorthanded. Now, I don’t want to see it…but does anyone think it is possible Orts will be traded. He isn’t that great as far as putting up points goes and Hollweg hits more and we just got Dupuis. Like I said, I don’t want to see it happen AT ALL! But, I think lots of teams would love to have his energy and we still need some things…

If anyone wants to complain about Sam Rosen and Joe Micheletti should tune in to Center Ice and listen to the “Bozos” that do the Caps announcing. Do you know that we have a player named Joe Ortmeyer? We must have ’cause he’s called that name several times.

While I think it would be fine to deal Nylander at the deadline if a solid center were on the way here, I fail to see how the Jagr era is over. On the PP tonight it looked to me like Jagr was even annoyed with Nylander, motioning him to go to the net. Jagr has 3 assists tonight. His “era” is hardly over. The Nylander era, on the other hand…

good effort tonite,no complaints except ward had his nightly give away.if it were not for the bords, rangers would have shut them out as well.avery has been a revelation.he has been the person who has brought out the mojo from the players. let us hope that it continues.also i never thought that i would say this,but if they can get nathhan horton from fla,for prucha and montoya,they should pull the trigger.

Sam: In between the 2nd and 3rd periods, I drove out to get my wife coffee, so I put on WABC 770 AM to listen to the intermission report. Albert and Maloney were interviewing Steve Zipay from Newsday, and somehow, they got on the topic of blogs. And your blog was mentioned! I think it was Zipay who said, “I know Sammy Weinman from the Journal News has an excellent blog on their website.”

with some scoring by 3 lines – the 4th line can look better by doing what they do. Even though I haven’t been his biggest fan it was very nice to see Hollweg come to Henrik’s defence. Actually seeing more of that teamwide the last 3 games.

Ro those of you who want to trade Malik, look at how the team did with and without him. Right after the break they won 2 in a row. Malik gets hurt, they lose 3 games. Malik comes back they win 2 in a row. Coincidence? I think not

those of you who want to trade Malik, look at how the team did with and without him. Right after the break they won 2 in a row. Malik gets hurt, they lose 3 games. Malik comes back they win 2 in a row. Coincidence? I think not””
………..

and Carolina won the Stanley Cup after getting rid of Malik and Weekes.

Jagr played extremely well, and Hossa, the goal aside, is starting to make sense to me as the sort of long-term project Renney has clearly seen him as. There is size and strength and skating ability….who knows, maybe he will put it together enough to be a creditable top 6 forward one day.

On the other hand, Ward made a very nice feed on the breakaway to Overchkin, but unfortunately the guy couldn’t finish so he didn’t get an assist.

Mark my words — Ward’s brain locks, the type a rookie in the ECHL doesn’t even make, will cost this team enormously down the stretch.

DumpJagrDope: the thrash traded him because, whats his name…Sutton, I think it was, just got off the IR. I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t know what they have for a 7th D…but I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t think they would want a big contract for that…unless they have a contract they want to dump and the Rangers can take and waive a player type thing…

DumpJagrDope : Yes pock would work…Kasper would only be half off is the Rangers had to pick up the other half against the cap…they wonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t do that. and OZO is on the IR and may go onto the long term IR, and in any case would have to be taken off the IR to be moved, meaning the Rangers would have to open up a roster spot just to move him…at least I think so

not Rangers related but this is the link to the article re the Toronto player being knocked cold in a fight vs Pitt. No video attached – BTW it sounds like he’ll be ok. The fight was on ESPN sportscenter.